Hundreds of Greeley, Evans residents displaced by historic flood

Several dozen mobile homes that were in storage in a lot near the South Platte River bridge on U.S. 85 crash together from the force of flooding that hit east Greeley and Evans on Friday. Weld County Sheriff's Office Bureau Chief Steve Reams said officials are concerned the homes could be swept up by the water and run into the bridge on U.S. 34, but there was little they could do to stop it.

Rescue crews carry one of the Ortiz children to safety after the family was boated out of the floodwaters surrounding their home Friday afternoon in Evans. Strong currents and deep water made it nearly impossible for some people to evacuate without help.

Sheriff John Cooke and deputies examine the flooding on U.S. 34 between Greeley and Kersey on Friday afternoon. The South Platte River spilled over its banks on Friday, cutting Greeley off from towns to the south and east.

An American Flag stands alone in the water at a private lake along westbound U.S. 34. The South Platte River came over the banks on Friday, causing major flooding and prompting many rescues along the river.

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Hundreds of residents in east Greeley and Evans were displaced and hundreds more acres of farmland were destroyed on Friday as the South Platte and Poudre rivers rushed to the east side of the state for what some experts have deemed a 100-year-flood.

First responders worked late into the night to retrieve residents who were stranded in the midst of rapidly rising water near east 16th and 18th streets near Fern Avenue in Greeley, the Riverview Farms subdivision near U.S. 34 and 1st Avenue, and at the Eastwood Village mobile home park off of 37th Street in Evans.

A black Chinook helicopter, courtesy of the National Guard, circled overhead as first responders in wet suits and helmets took Jet Skis, rafts and canoes into water that reached up to the rooftops in some places.

“The farther east, the worse it is,” said Steven Reams, Weld County Sheriff’s Office bureau chief, as water continued to spread and fill acres of land near east Greeley, turning it into a giant swimming pool.

“I haven’t talked to anyone today that can tell me of one that’s been worse than this,” he said of the flood.

Weld County commissioners unanimously declared a disaster emergency on Friday morning, while Gov. John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency in Weld and 13 other counties, authorizing the use of $6 million in state money.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced it would dedicate $5 million in emergency funds to Colorado, and U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner met with Weld County commissioners, vowing to do what he could to help the areas affected by the flooding.

Reams said the county’s first priority was to rescue the hundreds of people from what he estimated were about 100 homes underwater east of Greeley, leaving countless stranded animals and livestock to the responsibility of their owners.

“We don’t have the resources to start evacuating livestock right now,” Reams said.

On Friday evening, he said he was most concerned with some trailers in storage off of U.S. 85 that were swept up by the flood and threatened to float into the bridge at U.S. 34 and Weld County Road 61.

The county lost a bridge earlier on Friday at Colo. 52 and Weld County Road 17.

High river flows

Emergency evacuation centers were opened in Greeley, Evans, LaSalle, Milliken, Johnstown, Longmont, Berthoud, Fort Lupton, and Niwot, with the worst of the flooding expected from the Poudre River between 6 p.m. and midnight on Friday. Greeley officials asked residents living anywhere along the 100-year floodplain to consider voluntary evacuation.

The South Platte River surpassed projections of a 12-foot peak, hitting 15 feet by late Friday and threatening homes in north Kersey.

According to the National Weather Service, the Poudre River is expected to drop back to non-flood levels late today, but the South Platte will likely continue running above 10 feet high through the weekend.

In Johnstown and Milliken, Reams said rescues were lightening up and the water level looked to be receding.

“They should be in better shape tomorrow than they were today,” he said on Friday.

Major road closures on U.S. 34, Interstate 25 and U.S. 85 barricaded motorists and slowed traffic across the county. Several rural Weld County school districts closed for the day, including those in Windsor, Johnstown-Milliken, Kersey and LaSalle-Gilcrest-Platteville. Events across the Greeley area were canceled until further notice.

Stephen Bloise, emergency operations manager for Greeley, said on Friday evening the city was one step away from creating a full-fledged emergency operations center.

“It’s gonna get worse before it gets better,” he said.

One of Evans’ two wastewater treatment plants was shut down thanks to a power outage, moving city officials to issue a “do not flush” order, which they said could be in place for as long as 10 days.

In Firestone, at least one main water line in the Carbon Valley area was severed at the St. Vrain River, officials said. The water available is safe for drinking, but the city issued a mandatory water conservation and restrictions effectively immediately.

Rumors were rampant of unsafe drinking water, which officials in Greeley, Evans and Firestone worked to extinguish.

“There is NOT a boil water order for Greeley water customers,” said Greeley officials in a news release. Still, the bottled water supply in many of the area’s grocery stores was nearly exhausted by late Friday afternoon.

One of Greeley’s three water transmission lines through Laporte was isolated as a precaution, and the city recommended that those 54 water customers use bottled water until the sampling was complete.

There were also rumors that the Latham Dam, south and west of Kersey, might break after it lost two gates in the water. But Stephanie Cooke, spokeswoman for Platte Valley Fire Protection District, said engineers evaluated the dam and found no imminent threats.

Just the clothes on their backs

At Eastwood Village mobile home park, 200 37th St. in Evans, flood water swooped up the likes of trash cans, tires and a Fisher Price car and made diesel trucks look like they had been dropped in a bathtub.

Helpless residents clustered on street corners to watch as their homes were buried in water.

Jessica and Eugene Ortiz emerged from the virtual lake surrounding the park with their 3-year-old and 4-month-old daughters, with only the girls’ birth certificates in hand.

Eugene works nights and the family was asleep during much of the melee, so they were taken by firefighters via raft to higher ground.

Residents said the area was “fine” at 9 a.m., but two hours later, their homes were threatened.

Raymond Cisneros and his son, Joeray Cisneros, 17, were able to save their German Shepherd, but Raymond’s wallet remained inside his home.

“We just grabbed some pictures for the memories,” Joeray said.

Stella Martinez just returned home to the park to find it flooded and inaccessible. She said she only has the clothes on her back.

“The last flood was around 1995, but it didn’t reach this far,” Martinez said.

Greeley-Evans School District 6 Superintendent Ranelle Lang said 686 children were personally delivered to their parents because the families had been forced from their homes by flooding. The district also fed many of the students until the last one was united with parents at about 6:30 p.m.

At the evacuation center in downtown Greeley, Esequiel Garcia said he and his wife barely had time to get themselves out of their home at the Riverview Farms subdivision.

“It was a matter of minutes,” Garcia said of the time it took the water to reach his house.

He said the evacuation center at the Greeley Recreation Center was bustling, with close to 100 displaced residents inside.